Dean of PG Programs, School of Engineering, Coimbatore

Director, Cyber Security, Amritapuri

Director, TBI, Amritapuri

Professor, Chemical, School of Engineering, Coimbatore

Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan heads the Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks and Amrita Technology Business Incubator (Amrita TBI) at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. She is the Co-Director of Indo - U. S. and International Initiatives at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. She is also the Dean of PG Programs, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore and a Professor at the department of Chemical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore.

Dr. Krishnashree is an ardent researcher with multi-disciplinary interests, and holds a PhD degree from Clarkson University, NY, USA. Her areas of interest in materials science include, thin films and engineering of materials for electronic applications. She also leads research teams focused on enhancement of laboratory education through virtual laboratories. She holds 29 US patents, and has published widely in highly acclaimed international journals.

Internet-enabled technologies for robotics education are gaining importance as online platforms facilitating and promoting skill training. Understanding the use and design of robotics is now introduced at university undergraduate levels, but in developing economies establishing usable hardware and software platforms face several challenges like cost, equipment etc. Remote labs help providing alternatives to some of the challenges. We developed an online laboratory for bioinspired robotics using a low-cost 6 degree-of-freedom robotic articulator with a neuro-inspired controller. Cerebellum-inspired neural network algorithm approximates forward and inverse kinematics for movement coordination. With over 210000 registered users, the remote lab has been perceived as an interactive online learning tool and a practice platform. Direct feedback from 60 students and 100 university teachers indicated that the remote laboratory motivated self-organized learning and was useful as teaching material to aid robotics skill education.

ICT-enabled virtual and remote labs have become a platform augmenting user engagement in blended education scenarios enhancing University education in rural India.
A novel trend is the use of remote laboratories as learning and teaching tools in classrooms and elsewhere. This paper reports case studies based on our deployment of 20 web-based
virtual labs with more than 170+ online experiments in Biotechnology and Biomedical engineering discipline with content for undergraduate and postgraduate education.

Virtual laboratories, an ICT-based initiative, is a new venture that is becoming more prevalent in universities for improving classroom education. With geographically remote and economically constrained institutes in India as the focus, we developed web-based virtual labs for virtualizing the wet-lab techniques and experiments with the aid of graphics favoured animations, mathematical simulators and remote triggered experimentations. In this paper, we analysed perceived usefulness of Biotechnology virtual labs amongst student groups and its role in improving the student’s performance when introduced as a learning tool in a blended classroom scenario. A pedagogical survey, via workshops and online feedback, was carried out among 600 university-level students and 100 remote users of various Indian universities. Comparing learning groups on usage of blended learning approach against a control group (traditional classroom methods) and an experimental group (teacher-mediated virtual labs), our studies indicate augmented academic performance among students in blended environments. Findings also indicated usage of remotely-triggered labs aided enhancing interaction-based lab education enabling anytime-anywhere student participation scenarios.

Virtual Labs (VLAB) is a multi-institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, exclusively focused on lab experiments for engineering education. This project envisages building a large OER repository, containing over 1650 virtual experiments mapped to the engineering curriculum. The introduction of VLAB is a paradigm shift in an educational system that is slow to change. Treating VLAB OER as an educational technology innovation, its adoption by potential-adopter engineering students (N=131) is modeled based on Roger's theory of perceived attributes. Regression and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that the attributes of Compatibility, Ease of Use, Relative Advantage, and Trialability significantly influence potential-adopter students' intention to adopt an innovation like VLAB. The study also observed that using OER (such as VLAB) on desktops and low-cost tablets had similar effects in student performance to using physical labs. This has interesting implications for education policy-makers who are looking to reduce the digital divide.

Virtual labs for science experiments are a multimedia technology innovation. A possible growth pattern of the perceived critical mass for virtual labs adoption is modeled using (N=240) potential-adopter teachers based on Roger's theory of diffusion and of perceived attributes. Results indicate that perceived critical mass influences behavior intention to adopt a technology innovation like Virtual Labs and is affected by innovation characteristics like relative advantage, ease of use and compatibility. The work presented here models the potential-adopter teacher's perceptions and identifies the relative importance of specific factors that influence critical mass attainment for an innovation such as Virtual Labs.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled virtual labs have been setup in order to facilitate and enhance higher education. VALUE Biotechnology virtual labs were implemented as part of an ICT initiative and tested between several students and teacher groups. In this paper, we discuss about the application of virtualizing concepts and experiments in biotechnology, one of the fundamental area of biological sciences to impart quality education to meet the necessities of students. We found virtual labs, enhanced attention and student performance in biotechnology courses. The paper reports that applying virtualization techniques, biotechnology education could be intensified in terms of student attention and virtual lab can serve as an effective teaching pedagogy. The paper shows how virtual labs in biotechnology can be exploited to improve teaching and student performance. This study analyzes the trends of user behavior towards virtual laboratories and the usability of these laboratories as a learning and curriculum material. Findings from indicated biotechnology virtual laboratories encompass all the core subjects of their curriculum materials in an easy and understandable way with user-interaction and serve to reduce the problems of laboratory education especially in economically challenged and geographically remote areas. Virtual laboratories target a user-friendly outlook to modern laboratory education, aiding as an optional evaluation component for University teachers.

<p>Biotechnology is becoming more popular and well identified as a mainline industry.Students have shown greater interest in learning the techniques. As a discipline, biotechnology has led to new advancements in many areas. Criminal investigation has changed dramatically thanks to DNA fingerprinting. Significant advances in forensic medicine, anthropology and wildlife management have been noticed in the last few years. Biotechnology has brought out hundreds of medical diagnostic tests that keep the blood safe from infectious diseases such as HIV and also aid detection of other conditions early enough to be successfully treated.</p>

Methods for educating students in biotechnology require intensive training in laboratory procedures. Laboratory procedures cost Universities in terms of equipment and experienced guidance which often come short in many developing countries. Universities need revitalizing approach and well-adapted curriculum especially in terms of laboratory practice. For enhanced education at the level of University-level laboratory courses such as those in biology or biotechnology, one of the key elements is the need to allow the student to familiarize laboratory techniques in par with regular theory. The Sakshat Amrita virtual biotechnology lab project focusing on virtualizing wet-lab techniques and integrating the learning experience has added a new dimension to the regular teaching courses at the University. Establishing virtual labs requires both domain knowledge and virtualizing skills via programming, animation and device-based feedback. This paper reports a cost-effective process used in virtualizing real biotechnology labs for education at Universities. The major challenge in setting up an effective knowledge dissemination for laboratory courses was not only the scientific approach of biotechnology, but included the virtualization aspects such as usage/design scalability, deliverability efficiency, network connectivity issues, security and speed of adaptability to incorporate and update changes into existing experiments. This paper also discusses an issue-specific case-study of a functional virtual lab in biotechnology and its many issues and challenges.

The Virtual Labs Collaboration and Accessibility Platform (VLCAP) provides tools to further India’s National Mission project: the building of over 150 Virtual Labs (VL) for over 1450 multi-disciplinary undergraduate- and postgraduate-level experiments. VLCAP optimizes VL development and deployment costs and ensures a rich, consistent learning experience. Its multi-tier, scalable architecture allows VL builders to focus on their experiments. Its modules (VL workbench, collaborative content management, repositories) have axiomatically-designed interfaces that bring speed and efficiency to design. Its integration of user-management tasks (single sign-on, role-based access control, etc.) enhances flexibility without compromising security. The key accomplishments include its application of simulation VL and its provision of easily usable authoring tools, pre-configured templates, and management and assessment modules for instructors. VLCAP’s support of multiple deployment models, including the cloud, hosted, and mixed models, ensures scalable and reliable usage in hosted environments, and secure access for learners in remote locations.

Virtual labs are popularized as a visual education tool that offers diverse analysis of experiments through different components like graphics mediated animations, mathematically modeled simulations, user-interactive emulations, remote-triggered experiments and the use of augmented perception haptic devices. With the advances in ICT-based education, virtual labs have become a novel platform that helps users to engage in their proactive learning process. Our goal was to analyze the effective role of biotechnology virtual labs in improving academic performance of students and complementing classroom education. We tested the adaptability, perceived usefulness and ease of use of biotechnology virtual labs on different user groups in sciences and engineering. This study focuses mainly on the student and teacher groups from different universities across India. Feedback data was collected via a direct approach using organized workshops conducted in the year 2014-2015. 85% of participants suggested perceived usefulness of biotechnology virtual labs helped them to improve their academic performance compared to a traditional classroom scenario. Most users indicated the learning materials provided by virtual lab system were easy to understand, thus suggesting the better adaptability of ICT-enabled techniques amongst different users. This augments the role of virtual labs for remote learners all over the world. For India, such learning methods have helped overcome limitations seen in classroom-based education such as equipment accessibility, location and other economic issues. Through these studies, we construe the usage of virtual labs as a next-gen interactive textbook and as a media-rich learning source of distance and blended education.

A major challenge in engineering education today in India is preparing students with the skill set needed for a global industry. This paper describes an innovative partnership between two institutions of higher education in India and USA and a multinational corporation to address this challenge. The collaborative manner in which the industry and institutions internationalized the curriculum is a key feature of this program. This unique approach has resulted in the employees of a multinational company in India being able to get two high quality Masters-level degrees in engineering, customized to their current and future requirements at a very affordable price point. This paper looks at cost savings, collaborative course development between industry and international academia, using technology to deliver courses and on-the-job professional development program for employees while keeping the employees motivated. But there are also interesting lessons learnt regarding teaching in English, adjusting to the local cultural context and the overall integration into the Indian academic setting. The process innovation described here would be of great interest to academia, industry and education policy makers and has the potential to be replicated in the entire field of non-engineering and interdisciplinary academic programs.

Most of the critical challenges seen in the past decades have impacted citizens in a global way. Given shrinking resources, educationists find preparing students for the global market place a formidable challenge. Hence exposing students to multi-lateral educational initiatives are critical to their growth, understanding and future contributions. This paper focuses on European Union’s Erasmus Mundus programs, involving academic cooperation amongst international universities in engineering programs. A phased undergraduate engineering program with multiple specializations is analyzed within this context. Based on their performance at the end of first phase, selected students were provided opportunities using scholarship to pursue completion of their degree requirements at various European universities. This paper will elaborate the impact of differing pedagogical interventions, language and cultural differences amongst these countries on students in diverse engineering disciplines. The data presented is based on on the feedback analysis from Eramus Mundus students (N=121) that underwent the mobility programs. The findings have given important insights into the structure of the initiative and implications for academia and education policy makers for internationalizing engineering education. These included considering digital interventions such as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and Virtual Laboratory (VL) initiatives for systemic reorganization of engineering education.

In the world of computer based gaming most of them are purely for entertainment but recently serious games are also emerging. Our research study focused primarily on a type of serious game with multiple scenarios designed specifically to support cyber security concept learning. We studied the impact of game based learning on cyber security graduate engineering students (N=20). Existing game scenarios were enhanced with summative assessments. A control group (EG1=10) was given the summative test without playing the game and a different group (EG2=10) was given the same test after playing the game. Results indicate that EG2 had better learning outcomes though there was learning curve with the game itself.

A large number of ethical hacking competitions are organized worldwide as Capture The Flag (CTF) events. But there does not exist a framework to evaluate and rank CTFs that will guide participants as to which CTF's to participate. In a CTF event, the participants are required to either solve a set of challenges to gain points or they are required to defend their system by eliminating the vulnerabilities while attacking other's system vulnerabilities. We are proposing a framework that would evaluate and rank CTFs according to factors like similarity of the tasks to the common critical vulnerabilities, solvability of tasks, periodicity, training given prior to CTF, geographical reach, problem solving skills etc. In the next step these factors are systematically assigned weights using Analytic Hierarchy Process. As part of frame work creation and validation, ten CTFs have been analysed. Our analysis indicates that: All CTFs fall in to one of the three categories (jeopardy, attack-defence and mixed); CTFs often adopt popular software vulnerabilities and threats as tasks to be solved; Only few CTFs give formal training prior to the event; Complexity of the tasks to be solved varies from CTF to CTF. Five CTFs were ranked using the newly developed framework.

Experimental learning plays paramount role in Physics education. Experimental physics requires phenomenological investigations in several cases and this includes understanding visible and invisible heuristic procedures to discern underlying concepts. This study investigates the invisible yet evident occurrences of physical phenomena that are difficult to grasp from a learner's perspective. In this work the contribution of compounded effects of using computational techniques, multimedia enhanced simulations and interactive animations to draw the learner's attention to those physically undiscernable aspects of physics experiments is presented. The study has investigated three physics experiments by engineering students (N= 42) and the methodology focused on differentiating the learning outcomes between classroom teaching, laboratory experimentation and virtual laboratories. The students were divided into two batches. Visual and conceptual understanding was quantified by assessments that included their visual and conceptual understanding. Our study not only revealed severe limitations in learning invisible phenomena based on traditional classroom methods but also empirically validated the positive impact on learning outcomes when the classroom method is combined with Virtual Labs approach.

While there is large body of work examining efficacy of Virtual Labs in engineering education, studies to date have lacked modeling Blended Labs (BL) – mix of Virtual Labs (VL) and Physical Labs (PL) for science experimentation at the university engineering level. Using Rogers theory of perceived attributes, this paper provides a research framework that identifies the attributes for BL adoption in a social group comprising of (N=246) potential adopter undergraduate engineering students. Using Bass model the study also accounts for the interinfluence of related group of potential adopter faculties who are likely to exert positive influence on students. The results revealed that acceptance of BL as an innovation and its learning outcomes are strongly associated with innovation attributes like Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Ease of Use, Department and Faculty support. Learning outcomes are very positive under BL when compared to PL, though within BL, ordering of PL and VL was not significant. For certain innovation attributes gender differences were significant. Overall students expressed much more positive attitude to adopt BL model for learning than using only PL.

Nowadays public clouds offer a scalability that is often beyond what a user would be able to afford otherwise. Cloud bursting allows businesses leverage the cloud without losing the comfort and control of in-house data centre operations. Looking at cost, security and resource utilization angles we need a dynamic infrastructure to decide about the hybrid mix ie, private and public clouds. In this paper, we propose a general paradigm where software stacks need to be rearchitected to dynamically be able to run either in public or private clouds. The queries get executed in private or public clouds based on cost, security and resource utilization models chosen by the clients. Copyright 2012 ACM.

In response to the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT) Initiative, the Virtual and Accessible Laboratories Universalizing Education (VALUE @ Amrita) Virtual Labs Project was initiated to provide laboratory-learning experiences to college and university students across India who may not have access to adequate laboratory facilities or equipment. These virtual laboratories require only a broadband Internet connection and standard web browser. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University is part of a consortium of twelve institutions building over two hundred virtual labs covering nine key disciplines in science and engineering. This National Mission project hopes to reach out to India's millions of engineering and science students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Virtual Labs Project is providing virtual laboratory experiments that directly support the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) model curricula for engineering and sciences undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

India has embarked on a National Mission project to build over 150 Virtual Labs (VL) targeting over 1450 experiments mapped to the under graduate and postgraduate curriculum. Due to the lack of user centric tools and mechanisms for VL authors, it became crucial to architect a Virtual Labs Collaborative and Accessibility Platform (VLCAP) for use by the large scientific community building multi-disciplinary VL.With multi-tier, scalable architecture at its core, the technology platform allows VL builders to focus on particular logic of their experiments. The axiomatic design of the user interfaces built into the various modules including VL workbench, collaborative content management, repositories and so on assists in functional use of the elements while reducing the overall development time of VL by individual users. Integration of common tasks in user management, such as single sign-on, role based access control etc. enhances flexibility without compromising on security.

With shrinking metal lines and increased stacking of layers, BEOL processes today show higher dominance in affecting device performance. To maintain high process margin with low cost-of-ownership, a robust Cu process module is essential to any high volume manufacturing environment. Electroplating techniques with sophisticated current & voltage application methodologies are commonly used in the presence of electrolytes with widely varying conductivities to produce uniform Cu films. Well known also are the importance of organic additives to plating baths and their influence on the “bottom-up” or “super-filling” of Cu in damascened interconnect structures.

A system for protecting data managed in a cloud-computing network from malicious data operations includes an Internet-connected server and software executing on the server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a first function for generating one or more security tokens that validate one or more computing operations to be performed on the data, a second function for generating a hash for each token generated, the hash detailing, in a secure fashion, the operation type or types permitted by the one or more tokens, a third function for brokering two-party signature of the one or more tokens, and a fourth function for dynamically activating the one or more signed tokens for a specific time window required to perform the operations permitted by the token.

A system for protecting data managed in a cloud-computing network from malicious data operations includes an Internet-connected server and software executing on the server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a first function for generating one or more security tokens that validate one or more computing operations to be performed on the data, a second function for generating a hash for each token generated, the hash detailing, in a secure fashion, the operation type or types permitted by the one or more tokens, a third function for brokering two-party signature of the one or more tokens, and a fourth function for dynamically activating the one or more signed tokens for a specific time window required to perform the operations permitted by the token.

According to one exemplary embodiment, a method includes a step of forming a polysilicon layer over a substrate by using a deposition process, where the deposition process causes polysilicon nodule defects to form on a top surface of the polysilicon layer. The method further includes performing a polysilicon CMP process on the polysilicon layer, where the polysilicon CMP process removes a substantial percentage of the polysilicon nodule defects from the top surface of the polysilicon layer. The CMP process removes at least 95.0 percent of the polysilicon nodule defects from the top surface of the polysilicon layer. According to this embodiment, the polysilicon CMP process utilizes a polishing pressure that is less than 1.5 psi. The polysilicon CMP process also utilizes a table speed of between 20.0 rpm and 40.0 rpm. The polysilicon CMP process further utilizes a colloidal silica slurry.

According to one exemplary embodiment, a method includes a step of forming a number of trenches in a dielectric layer, where the dielectric layer is situated over a wafer. The method further includes forming a metal layer over the dielectric layer and in the trenches such that the metal layer has a dome-shaped profile over the wafer. The method further includes performing a planarizing process to form a number of interconnect lines, where each of the interconnect lines is situated in one of the trenches. The dome-shaped profile of the metal layer causes the interconnect lines to have a reduced thickness variation across the wafer after performing the planarizing process. The interconnect lines are situated in an interconnect metal layer, where the dome-shaped profile of the metal layer causes the interconnect metal layer to have increased sheet resistivity uniformity across the wafer after performing the planarizing process.

According to one exemplary embodiment, a method includes planarizing a layer of polysilicon situated over field oxide regions on a substrate to form polysilicon segments, where the polysilicon segments have top surfaces that are substantially planar with top surfaces of the field oxide regions, and where the field oxide regions have a first height and the polysilicon segments have a first thickness. The method further includes removing a hard mask over a peripheral region of the substrate. According to this exemplary embodiment, the method further includes etching the polysilicon segments to cause the polysilicon segments to have a second thickness, which causes the top surfaces of the polysilicon segments to be situated below the top surfaces of the field oxide regions. The polysilicon segments can be etched by using a wet etch process. The polysilicon segments are situated in a core region of the substrate.

A method is disclosed for the definition of the poly-1 layer in a semiconductor wafer. A non-critical mask is used to recess field oxides in the periphery prior to poly-1 deposition by an amount equal to the final poly-1 thickness. A complimentary non-critical mask is used to permit CMP of the core to expose the tops of core oxide mesas from the shallow isolation trenches.

A method of manufacturing a MOSFET type semiconductor device includes planarizing a gate material layer that is deposited over a channel. The planarization is performed in a multi-step process that includes an initial “rough” planarization and then a “fine” planarization. The slurry used for the finer planarization may include added material that tends to adhere to low areas of the gate material.

A method of manufacturing a planarized semiconductor wafer in which a semiconductor wafer is provided with a chemical-mechanical polishing stop layer deposited thereon. A photoresist layer is processed and used to form a patterned chemical-mechanical polishing stop layer and shallow trenches. A shallow trench isolation material is then grown on the chemical-mechanical polishing stop layer and in the shallow trenches, and is chemical-mechanical polished to the chemical-mechanical polishing stop layer.

The invention includes an apparatus and a method of manufacturing such apparatus using a damascene process. The method includes the step of patterning a layer disposed over a substrate to include a line and space pattern. The line and space pattern in the layer includes at least one space comprising a width dimension of a feature to be formed. The feature may be, e.g., a wordline(s)/gate electrode(s). Additionally, the sidewalls of the feature, e.g., the wordline(s)/gate electrode(s) include relatively smooth surfaces.

A FinFET-type semiconductor device includes a fin structure on which a relatively thin amorphous silicon layer and then an undoped polysilicon layer is formed. The semiconductor device may be planarized using a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) in which the amorphous silicon layer acts as a stop layer to prevent damage to the fin structure.

Shallow trench isolation techniques are disclosed in which a thin nitride layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a trench is formed through the nitride layer and into the semiconductor substrate, which is then filled. The wafer is then planarized using a fixed-abrasive CMP process to mitigate or avoid step height in the shallow trench isolation process. The nitride layer is then removed following planarization

A method for repairing an isolation dielectric damaged during a semiconductor fabrication process is disclosed in which a hard mask material is used to pattern a first material, the first material having openings therein exposing isolation regions comprising a first isolation dielectric layer. The method includes etching the hard mask material from the first material, wherein the etch creates gouges in the first isolation dielectric layer, and depositing a second layer of isolation dielectric over the first material, wherein the second isolation dielectric layer fills the gouges in the first isolation dielectric layer. The method further includes polishing on the second layer of isolation dielectric to remove the second layer of isolation dielectric from the first material.

For fabricating an interconnect structure formed within an interconnect opening surrounded by dielectric material, a layer of diffusion barrier material is formed on at least one wall of the interconnect opening. An activation layer comprised of palladium is formed on the layer of diffusion barrier material when the interconnect opening is immersed in an activation bath comprised of tin ions and palladium ions. The tin ions have a tin ion concentration in the activation bath that is greater than a palladium ion concentration in the activation bath. A layer of seed material is deposited on the activation layer in an electroless deposition process, and the interconnect opening is filled with a conductive fill material grown from the layer of seed material. A layer of silicon rich material may be formed on the layer of diffusion barrier material before deposition of the activation layer such that the activation layer is formed on the layer of silicon rich material. In that case, a ratio of the tin ion concentration to the palladium ion concentration in the activation bath is adjusted to decrease with an amount of silicon atoms of the layer of silicon rich material deposited on the layer of diffusion barrier material. The present invention may be practiced to particular advantage when the layer of seed material and the conductive fill material are comprised of copper.

A method for reducing nitride residue from a silicon wafer during semiconductor fabrication. The wafer includes a nitride mask defining active regions and isolation regions wherein the isolation regions are formed by trenches. The method includes providing an optimized oxide deposition process in which a temperature gradient of a CVD chamber is improved by performing the following steps. First, at least one silicon wafer is placed into the chamber on a quartz boat having an increased slot size, preferably at least 6 mm. Second, the quartz boat is centered in approximately a center of the chamber so that the wafer is located in a center section of the chamber to avoid the temperature gradient at the ends of the chamber, such that when oxide gas is injected onto the wafer, an oxide layer having a substantially uniform thickness is formed on the wafer. The method further includes performing an optimized polishing process on the oxide wherein the oxide is polished down to approximately a level of the nitride, but where more of the oxide is removed from the edge area of the wafer than in the center area. Thereafter, the nitride is stripped from the wafer, wherein substantially all of the nitride is removed from the wafer, thereby minimizing nitride residue.

A manufacturing method provides a semiconductor substrate with a semiconductor device. A dielectric layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate and an opening provided therein. An barrier layer lines the opening and a seed layer is deposited to line the barrier layer. A conductor core fills the opening over the barrier layer to form a conductor channel. The seed layer is annealed to form an annealed region, which securely bonds the seed layer to the barrier layer and prevents electromigration along the surface between the seed and barrier layers.

For filling an interconnect opening of an integrated circuit formed on a semiconductor substrate, an underlying material is formed at any exposed walls of the interconnect opening. A sacrificial layer of protective material is formed on the underlying material at the walls of the interconnect opening. The underlying material and the sacrificial layer of protective material are formed without a vacuum break. The protective material of the sacrificial layer is soluble in an acidic catalytic solution used for depositing a catalytic seed layer. The semiconductor substrate having the interconnect opening is placed within an acidic catalytic solution for depositing a catalytic seed layer. The sacrificial layer of protective material is dissolved away from the underlying material by the acidic catalytic solution such that the underlying material is exposed to the acidic catalytic solution. A catalytic seed layer formed from the acidic catalytic solution is deposited on the exposed underlying material at the walls of the interconnect opening. The conductive fill for filling the interconnect opening is grown from the catalytic seed layer by electroless deposition. The present invention may be used to particular advantage when the underlying material is comprised of tantalum as a diffusion barrier material, and when the protective material of the sacrificial layer is comprised of magnesium. In that case, the acidic catalytic solution includes palladium chloride and/or tin chloride with hydrochloric acid for dissolving the sacrificial layer of protective material.

A method is provided for manufacturing an integrated circuit having a semiconductor substrate with a semiconductor device. A dielectric layer is formed on the semiconductor wafer and an opening is formed in the dielectric layer. A barrier layer is deposited to line the opening and a conductor core is deposited to fill the channel opening over the barrier layer. The semiconductor wafer is then subjected to chemical-mechanical polishing using a differential pressure between the center of the semiconductor wafer and its periphery.

A semiconductor wafer polishing method and apparatus therefor are provided having a system housing and a robotic handling system for moving the semiconductor wafer between a belt module and a rotary module for respective linear and rotary polishing. A buff module and a cleaning module are provided in the system housing for buffing and cleaning the semiconductor wafer.

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device having a Cu—Ca—O thin film formed on a Cu surface by immersing the Cu surface into a unique chemical (electroless plating) solution containing salts of calcium (Ca) and copper (Cu), their complexing agents, a reducing agent, a pH adjuster, and surfactants; and a semiconductor device thereby formed for improving Cu interconnect reliability, electromigration resistance, and corrosion resistance. The method controls the parameters of pH, temperature, and time in order to form a uniform conformal Cu-rich Cu—Ca—O thin film, possibly containing carbon (C) and/or sulphur (S), for reducing electromigration in Cu interconnect lines by decreasing the drift velocity therein which decreases the Cu migration rate in addition to decreasing the void formation rate. The method for forming a semiconductor device having a copper-calcium-oxide (Cu—Ca—O) thin film on a copper (Cu) surface, the Cu surface having been formed by CVD, PVD, or electroplating, by treating the Cu surface in a chemical solution, comprises the steps of: (1) providing the chemical solution which comprises: (a) at least one calcium (Ca) ion source for providing a plurality of Ca ions; (b) at least one complexing agent for complexing the plurality of Ca ions; (c) at least one copper (Cu) ion source for providing a plurality of Cu ions; (d) at least one complexing agent for complexing the plurality of Cu ions; (e) at least one pH adjuster; (f) at least one reducing agent for facilitating deposition of the plurality of Cu ions; (g) at least one wetting agent for stabilizing the chemical solution; and (h) a volume of water, (a) through (g) being dissolved in (h); (2) immersing the Cu surface in said chemical solution, thereby forming the Cu—Ca—O thin film on the Cu surface; and (3) rinsing the Cu—Ca—O thin film formed on the Cu surface in water; drying the the Cu—Ca—O thin film formed on the Cu surface under a nitrogen flow (GN2); and completing formation of the semiconductor device.

We present an intelligent data management framework that can facilitate development of highly scalable and mobile healthcare applications for remote monitoring of patients. This is achieved through the use of a global log data abstraction that leverages the storage and processing capabilities of the edge devices and the cloud in a seamless manner. In existing log based storage systems, data is read as fixed size chunks from the cloud to enhance performance. However, in healthcare applications, where the data access pattern of the end users differ widely, this approach leads to unnecessary storage and cost overheads. To overcome these, we propose dynamic log chunking. The experimental results, comparing existing fixed chunking against the H-Plane model, show 13 %–19 % savings in network bandwidth as well as cost while fetching the data from the cloud.

Vehicular communication intends to improve the traffic safety for decreasing number of accidents and manages traffic for saving money and time. In vehicular communication, vehicles communicate wirelessly and so security of this network against attackers should be considered. To become a real technology that has public safety on the roads, vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) needs appropriate security architecture. Secure architecture should protect it from different types of security attacks and preserve privacy for drivers. One of these attacks against ad-hoc networks is Sybil attack that attacker is creating multiple identities that are identities belonging to other vehicles or dummy identities made by the attacker. Attacker is using them to gain a disproportionately large influence in the network leading to accidents or causing delay in some services for the driver using only one physical device. In this paper we present a case study of different selective methods for Sybil attack detection in vehicular networks and discuss about advantages and disadvantages of them for real implementation.